Weight Loss Isn't A Competion

(Note: this post is not meant as a critique for those who find true success in competition. This is just my thoughts on why they usually don't work, especially for me.)


We have all had opportunities to participate in assorted weight loss competitions through work, school, family, etc. For me, and I suspect most of us, they cannot effect a lasting change. I think that change, real life-altering change, can only come by way of pure motivations. What is pure is different for all of us. I think these motivations are deeply ingrained in our souls by the time we reach maturity (whatever that is). Competition is rarely a pure motivation for anyone. Unquestionably, it's not for me.
I understand the potential for a weight loss competition to help jumpstart better habits. Any path to better health is a good path, right? It has to be. It's not. The lure of the prize, no matter how large the lure or the prize, to motivate a demanding diet and exercise schedule (especially when such a schedule didn't exist before) is unsustainable. Once the incentive is removed, even if you win, the motivations to maintain good habits will invariably dry up. Every competition has a time limit, a defined end; good health has no set time.
Then, in order to begin establishing better habits one must pinpoint what motivates them towards true, meaningful actions. My purest motivations (as far as I understand them now) are family (I lump religion in with this one) and intellectual pursuits (writing (among other creative outlets like baking), reading, films (translation: movies), television, music, and making fun of Lady GaGa and her ilk). Now that I'm finally understanding the importance these things hold in me, I'm finally feeling the pull of getting healthy, so that I can be an active father and so that any self-imposed obstacle towards intellectual growth is removed.
I'm waxing philosophical here because I want this to stand as extra-motivation when keeping my goals gets hard. (I've had a couple hiccups already.) I need to acknowledge what is driving this whole thing. It's not a pathetic plee for attention or a vanity project. It's an attempt to chronicle my changing habits for myself and my family (especially Stella and Jess).